Comments 486

Re: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom's Final Pre-Launch Trailer Is Absolutely Stunning

andykara2003

OK I’ve gone from completely ambivalent and non interested to utterly blown away & hyped more than any game I can remember. Nintendo seemingly understood that many were down on the game so decided to reveal it’s hand. And what a hand - there’s where those six years went! I can now glimpse a possibility that this might just end up being the best open world game ever made..

Re: Nintendo's Latest N64 Game For Switch Online + Expansion Pack Is Out Now

andykara2003

This is actually a fantastic game, based on it’s gripping and authentic physics & handling. This was a gift as a result of the fact that Paradigm were established space and aviation simulation specialists. There’s something endearing about the simplicity of the graphics, being such a graphically primitive first wave N64 game. It’s understandable that modern gamers who weren’t there at the time might not warm to it, but I do feel that these days, this game is underrated in general.

Re: Pilotwings 64 For Switch Online Appears To Be Targeting A Higher Frame Rate

andykara2003

Nice. Although part of the reason it looks so much worse here than we remember is because we played on CRT. And the low frame rate looks more jarring on a modern TV. OLED etc. has a very fast grey-to-grey pixel response, which is sample-and-hold, accentuating low frame rate frame transitions much more harshly than CRT. Of course it still looks crisper and smoother - I'm very nostalgic for the N64 though, so love putting that cart into my N64 & playing on a Trinitron.

Re: Nintendo Is Apparently Not Involved In The New Switch DRM Initiative

andykara2003

@Rika_Yoshitake @acNewUpdates you’re both right - the trouble is that these games are being emulated while the console cycle is still in progress. The emulation should only be available once the Switch cycle is over. Most people use Switch emulation for piracy at the moment, which is bad, but it will end up being essential to game preservation, which is great. Of course this ideal scenario will never happen.

Re: GoldenEye 007's Return Could Be Close

andykara2003

Some think the game hasn’t held up well, but honestly if you give it a proper go, it’s still amazingly fun. The 1.2 control layout is perfect - c buttons for movement and analogue for aim. So satisfying, the missions are still great - it just takes giving it a little time to get readjusted. You can even use 2 controllers for dual analogue.

Re: You Can Play Mario Kart 64 In Glorious HD Thanks To This Fan-Made Texture Pack

andykara2003

Actually if you really know how to play the game, can power slide properly, chain drifts etc, the core gameplay is still absolutely fantastic. I find it odd that people have started to deride this game, but eventually realised it’s usually newer players trying to go back from MK8. It plays so differently, but when you get it, its still very very good.

It doesn’t have that super-stable handling of MK8, but for this game that was intentional. If you mess the cart around in a way that represents bad driving, you go unstable & unless you counter, the game will spin you out. This creates another layer to the handling model that’s immensely satisfying and rewards decisive,, clean gameplay.

Re: Nintendo Of America Named In Workers' Rights Complaint

andykara2003

From my perspective, we all love Nintendo for their ethos of creating a collaborative, harmonious gaming atmosphere. So I think it’s right that we should expect them to treat their employees with respect too. If they have gone off the rails in that respect, action should be taken. I love Nintendo, but if they’re bad employers then it definitely would sour the experience for me.

Re: Hands On: 4K Gamer Pro - A 4K 'Silver Bullet' For Your Nintendo Switch?

andykara2003

Never liked this sort of stuff - I sold my mclassic. They have a weird unnatural effect reminiscent of bilinear filtering in SNES emulation - yuck. And I never liked the forced colour ‘enhancement”. It smacks of trying to impress with an image that appeals at first but then after a while looks overdone and unnatural. Give me the developer’s intentions every time.

Re: There Are Already Mods For The Zelda: Ocarina Of Time PC Port

andykara2003

Amazing project, but high resolution for the N64 to me just make the game look like a bundle of polygons. For me, the only way I've seen to make the game shine while retaining the original atmosphere while looking cleaner is via the Gamecube via RGB into a consumer CRT in 480i at 5-6ft. It's absolutely magic and as far as I know, no one seems to know about it. The interlaced image softens the image beautifully while still looking so clean - and avoids the overly pixellated image of 480p (not the original feel of the game). As it's a consumer set, the interlacing isn't apparent at 5-6ft. The really amazing thing is that with this setup, the GC's upscaling of the original 2D elements blend almost perfectly with the 480i image, so look clean and as if they're supposed to be there. Again, 480p wouldn't allow for this - or 480i on a pro CRT for that matter, low-use consumer set is best. Of course trying to get this to look good on a flat panel is hopeless. 480p and below looks overly pixellated and takes away from the authentic image of the world. Hi res just fine for a lot of people and I completely understand that people love that, it's just not the world that Nintendo presented and I wish more people could see how much that takes away from the original vision. On the right display, you have the best of all worlds - original feel of the game, higher res but not too-high-res, beautiful, smooth, clean image and nicely integrated text & 2D elements. When all this comes together, you are truly transported seamlessly into the seminal world that this team created, fully absorbed without any distracting elements to pull you out of the experience, invoking the true spirit and magic of the game that blew us all away so profoundly back in the day.